Description
A Moor.  He is a tall man with a fierce visage and a manicured beard.  Wears clean well made long flowing robes and turban.  He prefers cloths that are white and mustard yellow in color.   The folds of his robes have many small pockets sewn into them with many small pouches and vials.

The Moorish Warrior - William Merritt Chase (1878)

History
Born in the city of Toledo to a family that is a long line of doctors Kahzim abu Da'ud ibin Firnas never really intended to get into the law but as an educated man and as a man of Medicine he was often called in to be at the scene of crimes and strange occurrences and treat to the victims.  Kahzim has an inquisitive mind and such questions as ‘How did he get that wound?’ and  ‘What is that strange slime’ led to further questions about why, how and who was responsible.  He does derive satisfaction from dealing out death and judgment to sinners, but his real passion is in learning and problem solving.  Having seen the results before he is especially merciless when dealing any taint of diabolism.

Kahzim’s first teacher in the magical arts was abu Hurairrah (interestingly this translates as ‘the kitten’s father’ - the idea being to avert the unwanted attention of jinn by appearing harmless), a senior magus of the Ikhwan, a member of the Order of Suleiman.  abu Hurairrah was one of the leading members of the peace faction in the war with the Order of Hermes culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Baghdad in 1193.  abu Hurairrah was willing to make peace with magi of the Order of Hermes because he firmly believes that there is much that each organization could teach the other, if only they would listen.  To this end he had his newest student, Kahzim, fostered to the Transitionalist leaning Quaesitor Tyr (see pg 120 -122 of ‘A Medieval Tapestry’ Ars Magica supplement).  While in the Order of Hermes Kahzim took the name ‘DeLibro’ – a play on the sound of the word ‘Deliberate’ and the meaning of ‘the book’ as books are around which much of his life revolves.  The current Crusade in Egypt is sorely testing the truce between the two orders and it may be that when the time comes for it to be renewed in 1223 the more hostile voices will prevail and war will break out again. The truce will certainly end if either side finds evidence that the other has been involved in military activities. What will happen then only time will tell and DeLibro looks nervously to the future.

A devout Muslim, DeLibro puts up the antics of the Franks because he does not see much difference in the way the average Muslim or Christian acts, they are all a bunch of ignorant, lying, immoral, superstitious fools.  Obviously DeLibro believes in the value of education and culture and tends to judge a person more by what they know than who they are and has little patience for ignorance. He was dismayed that his long time quill friend Ancel has chosen a barbarian as a student, but it is obvious that this Frank is useful and effective in the fight against evil.  DeLibro has not yet gone on a Hajj to the holy city of Mecca.

The Five Pillars of Islam
Shahada:  The ‘profession of faith’ is that which must be stated and believed to become a Muslim.  This includes never denying his faith, even to protect his own life.

Salat: Ablutions and prayer five times a day, though in times of war and crisis this may be reduced to three times a day.

Saum:  Fasting during daylight hours during the month of Ramadan.

Zakat:  Alms to the poor, ~3.5% of person's income.

Hajj:  Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once.

Personality
Pragmatic, careful, bookish, devout, fierce.  This magus defies tradition by remaining logical and clear thinking.  He is a man of learning and reason, with a sharp mind and careful wit.  To other magi DeLibro is a staunch Transistionalist, he believes that the Order must change to survive, namely by reaching out to other traditions and casting off the insistence on Latin purity.  As a Transistionalist his rulings as a Quaesitor tend to be based on the realities of the the situation rather than an established precedent.

Quote
“By Allah!  There is so much to learn!”

View of The World and Its Powers
The Church: Kahzim is a Muslim and believes in God (whatever the trappings), but he is intelligent enough to understand the difference between real faith and faith as a means of control.

The Faith: I feel an inner peace when I pray and I feel safe from the horrors of the world. Faith is an inner harmony of peace and the salvation of many. It is thus a shame that I cannot call myself a true believer.

The Gift: It is a great responsibility and must be handled with utmost care. We, the Gifted, are both blessed and cursed, since our gift sets us aside from the rest of the world and we, sadly, are viewed upon with distrust and fear.

The Fey: The Jinn are always very fascinating and very dangerous.

The Infernal: Horrible and corruptive. The most nefarious and tormenting creations in existence. Must be constantly resisted lest one fall prey to their temptations and evil plots.

The Divine: Glorious and beautiful. All that is good and pure and an inspiration to us all.

The Nobility: The ruling class by right of birth and wealth and nothing else!  Their station carries a great responsibility and privilege but they can be as foolish and as ignorant as the lowest peasant.
 

Made in the Lab wish list
Some of the F&E bonus information taken from the Rabenstien House Rules

Familiar
Summoning a familiar is obviously going to have to wait for a while as DeLibro currently knows nothing of the requisite Animal form to complete the ritual.  But when he does learn it he has always admired the pragmatism and foresight of birds, especially the   Crow.  In the Bestiary see Birds, Mental quirk ‘Tools’, Physical quirk ‘Alertness’, and  ‘Crows' Intuitions’.  I see a sleek black crow, the gloss of which you sometimes think looks like rapidly moving Arabic letters.

Talisman
A Sapphire (F&E bonus +5 Heal Eyesight,+2 Healing,+2 Dispel Evil Magic on a Person+2 Knowledge) mounted on a Qu’ran book (F&E bonus +5 Knowledge)

Lesser Enchanted:
-Finger print dust  – InVm?  InCo?  Hands of those who have touched an object glow blue
-Lab equipment to conduct forensics (equivalent to Intelligo spells that can see into the past)
-Horn stethoscope to diagnose (Reveled Flaws of the Mortal Flesh)
-Magnifying glass (F&E bonus for Clear Glass +4 Invisiblity, +5 Seeing through something) to find small.  Enhances fine detail, requires 1 min of scrutiny per 10 sq. ft. (Search 5)
-Telescope glass (F&E bonus for Clear Glass +4 Invisiblity, +5 Seeing through something) to find things at distance (Scan 5)
-Healing bed with crystals worked into wood (F&E bonus for Rock crystal +3 Healing, bandage +4 Healing)
-Emergency First Aid kit to stabalize wounds with bandages, sutures, hand pump respirator (CreCorp 10 gives F&E bonus for banadges +4 to stabilize wound)
-Surgical Tools; gives bonus to healing from serious wounds
-Skullcap (F&E bonus +6 enhance wearer's mind)
-Sanitation system for the covanent, gives bonus to aging roll
-Anitbacterial and insecticide supplies for the covanent, gives bonus to aging roll.

Potions:
-General aid in healing salves (F&E bonus to healing)
-Antibacterial (Gentle Touch of the Purified Body CrCo 15 + F&E bonus for herbs)
-Purify food and drink
-Sleep gas (Scent of Peaceful Slumber ReMe 15)
-Hallucinogenic gas, much as Panic of Trembling Heart CrMe 15
-Wine that has a truth serum (Posing the Silent Question InMe)
-Drink of Coffee  (Endurance of the Berserkers ReCo 15)
-Smoke bomb
-Flash power (Flash of Scarlet Flames)
-See Elixirs and Dusts section on the alchemy page.
-Vitamin regimen; gives +1 bonus to aging roll (CrCo 10)
-Alchemy gives +2 bonus to transformations, a potion could be designed to mimic almost any Muto spell. ie Lungs of the fish (MuAq 10), Eyes of the Cat (MuCo 5)

Rules
Clarify; in the 4th edition rules what is the use of Medicine talent if it can only be used in place of Chirgury?  But presumably Medicine is somehow ‘better’ than Chirgury because it requires the character to be educated (as it is a formal knowledge).  In the 3rd edition the Medicine and Chirgury talent scores added for making a roll dealing with some medical based task.   In some house rules for campaigns that I have seen written up Medicine covers healing for everything that Chirgury can do AND IN ADDITION Medicine includes dealing with disease, surgery and mental illness.

For DeLibro I have used the rule from the unofficial Ars Arabia supplement detailing Arabic Talents the Medicine talent is bought at one level lower cost for Arabic characters.  This is to reflect the fact that medieval Arabic medicine was far advanced of medieval European medicine.  Considering that DeLibro has to suffer the Foreinger and Dutybound Flaws to get this benifit I did not consider it game unbalancing.

See the Covanent of Rabenstein web pages on The Workings of House Quæsitor.

The statistics and timeline for the Quaesitor Tyr as given on pg 120 -122 of ‘A Medieval Tapestry’ would need tto be altered to allow him the time and skills to take an apprentice.

Dependence Upon Props:  To Kahzim all power comes from Allah as expressed through his written word.  Kahzim can only cast Formulaic spells by holding onto a copy of the holy Qu’ran.

Warped Magic:  As with the ‘Dependence Upon Props’ flaw; to Kahzim all power comes from Allah as expressed through his written word.  To cast spells Kahzim writes Arabic and Latin letters in the air that glow blue and spark with static electric energy.  This also forms his sigil.
 

Character Sheet for Delibro
Grimoire sheet for Delibro

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